State of the Market

[SchumiStars]

Just reading a post on LinkedIn from a recruiter who has 25yrs in the game asking what kind of career he should now purse, given his skill set.

Bit of a worry when the recruiters are also shutting up shop. Clearly they are expecting the downturn to continue for further time.

WTF is going on!!

[SchumiStars]

Not one testing role posted to jobserve today. This has to be a first. Also spoke to somebody from Hays, they said they have absolutely no roles at all and the market is completely dead. Very worrying times especially as this is usually the busiest time of the year.

I am afraid this is obvious. If there are no new systems, integrations or projects there is nothing to test.

All the current systems are working as expected and there is no requirement to upgrade, rewrite or integrate any current software system.

It really is very unusual ATM and certainly nothing I have seen in 25yrs of being a developer. That everyone has just stop spending on IT projects and drawn a line in the sand.

[SussexSeagull]

Do you think it matters considering job ads get absolutely swarmed with applications? unless you are one of the first ones to apply, even with 80% you still get a chance imho. If you are a 100% match, but come as number 100+, I'd say you've missed your chance.

I think it does very much matter. Even if fastest fingers first gets you a call from the agent it won't get you much further in the process as companies will just keep asking until they get their unicorn.

[WTFH]

Do you think it matters considering job ads get absolutely swarmed with applications? unless you are one of the first ones to apply, even with 80% you still get a chance imho. If you are a 100% match, but come as number 100+, I'd say you've missed your chance.

In the old days, you knew your agents, you kept in contact with them, and you knew about roles before they were advertised. Frequently part of the reason for advertising was to get CVs for future roles, and to let clients and competitors know that the agency was doing a lot of business. By the time the advert went out, the client had already been sent maybe 5 CVs to select which 2 or 3 to interview.

But it appears that people don't proactively talk to agents any more, instead relying on emails, or just spamming out their CV.

[Bluenose]

WTF is going on!!

Linked-in is shifting the power to the tech recruitment shops who can get a good pipeline of roles with consultancies (not in-house hiring managers) regardless of their team size e.g. you dont need to be a HAYS IT to survive. You don't need the database anymore.

You can then nearshore/offshore everything else.

We talked for years about disruption in IT recruitment, well, its been happening since the pandemic.

Have not got a linked-in licence and a not a good pipeline of tech roles with small to large consultancies ? UB40 for you.

London based recruiter used to spending all day on the phone and earning 50, 100, 200k through your contact book with hiring managers? UB40 for you.

Phone/email/UK based minimum wage IT recruiter without a brain calling up/spamming the UK? UB40 for you.

[dsc]

In the old days, you knew your agents, you kept in contact with them, and you knew about roles before they were advertised. Frequently part of the reason for advertising was to get CVs for future roles, and to let clients and competitors know that the agency was doing a lot of business. By the time the advert went out, the client had already been sent maybe 5 CVs to select which 2 or 3 to interview.

But it appears that people don't proactively talk to agents any more, instead relying on emails, or just spamming out their CV.

I remember working with a long term contractor a while back and he used to get calls from "his" agent about future work and he would pick and choose. Totally different ballgame now though, seems like even agents don't want to talk to anyone as they get swamped with calls and often when you talk to them eventually they just repeat "apply online".

[SussexSeagull]

I used to have a small circle of agents/consultancies I got work through but tellingly most of them have gone in house.

In the meantime found this little beauty on LI. Bilingual Automated Tester for £150 a day. At some point the agent needs to develop a backbone and refuse to deal with a client.


1 x UFT

2 x Functional Testers

1 x QA Automation Tester




Duration - Initial 1 Year Contract

Hire Type – REMOTE

Language - French & English Mandatory

Daily Rate – Up to €150 p/d MAX - negotiable depending on experience and location

Start Daye - Ideally 1st Week of March or ASAP

Industry sector - Insurance

Experience minimum 3 years

Job Description 1

Our client is currently looking for up to 3 x Functional Testers

Experience requirement a minimum of 3 years

Skill/Experience Requirements:

• Able to understand and own end to end testing objective and derive test strategy/approach as per the same
• Exp with translating requirements/backlogs/user stories to test scenarios
• Exp with test preparation, test execution, defect management and test reporting
• Preferrable: Exp in API testing, SQL knowledge
• Process: Exp with working in agile methodology and participating in scrum events

Tools: Jira, Confluence, Jenkins etc.




1 x UFT & 2 x Functional Testers

Your Role

As a Senior Functional Test Lead, you will be an expert contributing to different phases Testing life-cycle.

You will own end to end testing in an agile SDLC.

You will be required to participate in Agile ceremonies/events and contribute from the quality assurance perspective.

You will also play an important role in the translating the requirements/backlogs/user stories to test strategy/plan and test scenarios.

You will be required to prepare test strategy, test plan, test execution and Test reporting.

You will guide teams on test processes, deliverables and contribute to test basis and knowledge management for the team.




Required

Ideally a bachelor's degree or foreign equivalent required from an accredited institution. Will also consider three years of progressive experience in the specialty in lieu of every year of education.

At least 3+ years of experience in Functional testing

At least 3+ years in working in Agile SDLC

Experience with tools like JIRA, Confluence etc.

Ability to understand and use advance analysis methods to identify and resolve complex client scenarios.

High impact Communication skills

Business Acumen

Customer Orientation

Planning and Co-ordination skills




Job Description 2

Our client is currently looking for a QA Automation Tester with Selenium

Experience requirement is 3+ years

Skill/Experience Requirements:

• Exp with defining the automation strategy
• Understanding the Test automation framework and ability to update and adapt to the same
• Preferrable: Exp in API testing, SQL knowledge
• Tools: Selenium + Java, Jenkins, SoapUI + Groovy, Jira
• Process: Exp with working in agile methodology and participating in scrum events

QA Automation Tester with Selenium

Your Role

As a Quality Assurance Automation Engineering Lead/Quality Engineering Analyst, you will be an expert contributing to different phases Testing lifecycle.

You will work in a Agile SDLC, and responsible for in sprint as well as regression automation of test scripts.

You will be required to participate in Agile ceremonies/events and contribute from the quality assurance perspective.

You will be required define an automation strategy, planning.

You will be required to execute the automation testing scripts, report the defects/bugs as well as publish test reports.

You will be required to maintain the regression suite and responsible for selecting the right regression scripts for each test cycle.




Required

Ideally a bachelor's degree or foreign equivalent required from an accredited institution. Will also consider three years of progressive experience in the specialty in lieu of every year of education.

At least 3+ years of experience in Automation scripting and execution with Selenium and Java.

Experience with tools like JIRA, Confluence etc.

Ability to understand and use advance analysis methods to identify and resolve complex client scenarios.

High impact Communication skills

Business Acumen

Customer Orientation

Planning and Co-ordination skills

Preferred

Domain knowledge of Insurance domain

Experience with API and SQL

[gables]

I remember working with a long term contractor a while back and he used to get calls from "his" agent about future work and he would pick and choose. Totally different ballgame now though, seems like even agents don't want to talk to anyone as they get swamped with calls and often when you talk to them eventually they just repeat "apply online".

Yep, back when I first went contracting in the early 90s, a very different environment admittedly, it definitely felt like "my" agent was working for me. We would be in contact during a contract so he new when it was ending (whether his or not) and around a month before the end he would approach with extension and\or other roles and do his best to get that next role for me. Obviously I would be in contact with other agencies but not as closely, but then they were just a fax and phone call away.

[sadkingbilly]

. Will also consider three years of progressive experience in the specialty in lieu of every year of education.

they've got That arse for elbow.
the other way round is more real.

[sadkingbilly]

Yep, back when I first went contracting in the early 90s, a very different environment admittedly, it definitely felt like "my" agent was working for me. We would be in contact during a contract so he new when it was ending (whether his or not) and around a month before the end he would approach with extension and\or other roles and do his best to get that next role for me. Obviously I would be in contact with other agencies but not as closely, but then they were just a fax and phone call away.

was just like that in early '70's too